128
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
The shorter, southern spur, occupying a region of heavier Boulder
Clay, still retained much of its compactness, a few manors
appearing along its margins. Finally, the three light soil
regions and the eastern London Clay showed slight traces of
forest, if the districts of Tiptree, Danbury and Hockley be
excepted. (Fig. 5.)
Thus it seems from the evidence of 1086 that the Saxon
settlers had early taken up the partially cleared eastern London
Fig. 5. The Forest Area in 1086 a.d.
Clay and light soil areas, and had already cleared part of the
main Boulder Clay forest, and, to a lesser extent, the woodland
to the southwest of the County. This can be the only possible
explanation of the multitude of small heavily-wooded manors
in these last-named regions. Some support is given to these
statements by the fact that Domesday records further de-
forestation in the west and north of the County between 1066 and
1086.
As in Norman times the total arable acreage is about 336,000
acres compared with 400,000 acres of corn and root crops in